The system works by using a front-mounted camera and radar detector to monitor the surrounding traffic at both city and highway speeds. If a crash is determined to be imminent, the car will first warn the driver, then apply the brakes if no action is taken.

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But say something sudden happens in front of you, and you can't stop in time to avoid it. Your natural instinct is to jerk the steering wheel to try and swerve around the obstacle. But most drivers aren't prepared for a sudden evasive maneuver, and they might not even know how far they've turned the wheel.

That's where ESA kicks in. The system activates the moment it detects an evasive swerve. Once the driver initiates the steering action, ESA takes over, steering the car the exact right amount to avoid the obstacle, while also preventing the car from crashing into anything else or spinning out of control.

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Think of the benefits: Since the car only takes over once the driver initiates an evasive swerve, the driver is less likely to be startled by the car seemingly steering itself. And, well, if you really want to keep driving straight and hit that thing, it's up to you, I guess.

Ford says it's already working on an improvement to the system that helps the driver decide which direction to steer. In addition to Evasive Steering Assist, Ford announced a wrong-way warning system that uses camera and GPS data to alert a driver who's going the wrong way on a one-way road.

Ford didn't provide an exact timeline for when we'll see these systems in production, but the features should be available within the next two years.

Even though Ford maintains that the driver remains in control of this assistance system, it provides us a look at our autonomous-car future. This tech makes the cars of today safer, but it also lays the groundwork for tomorrow's self-driving cars.